Police have tough job, need high standards

Americans have always had a love affair with violence evidenced by their adoration of firearms, boxing, stock car racing, football and engaging in riots. It’s in our DNA. When you add our constitutional freedoms, such as the Second Amendment, you have all the ingredients for chaos.

All of this spills over into the actions of our law enforcement personnel. Until lately, the public has not been overly concerned about excessive violence by our police. They appeared to assume that anything goes, ,but now in view of the verdict in the George Floyd case, it looks like there is at least a possibility for change. I don’t mean to imply that we can blame the police for all of these problems, but being in the spotlight and seeing them in action on camera makes it easy to go after them.

Before I go any further, I have to admit that their job is one that is almost impossible to perform without a lot of criticism. Ask yourself: Would you like to be a police officer? Would you want your children joining the ranks?

The art of roughing up a suspect at the time of arrest or interrogating someone with methods that are suspect goes on daily. But how do we bring about changes?

My guess is that at the time a police officer is hired, there often isn’t enough of a background check to weed out those who shouldn’t be wearing a badge in the first place. It is often difficult to determine if too much violence was involved in a particular case. Don’t expect fellow police officers to inform on a fellow officer. You don’t rat on your buddies! This means that coming up with proof of police infractions is very difficult. You would think that the use of body cameras would take care of the problem, but you know this isn’t the case — the officer was not wearing one, it malfunctioned or it has been lost. So often the investigation is conducted by a person very close to the department who isn’t about to stick his neck out to protect a victim who isn’t very likeable.

One approach to ensure an impartial investigation is to hire someone not connected to law enforcement and make it clear that the police department will support their investigation and cooperate fully. This would at least give the appearance that the department is serious about bringing about needed changes.

Politicians love to talk about legislation that would be helpful in correcting a problem but are often reluctant to propose legislation that addresses this issue. You know how they think. Would the voters want me to support such legislation? When you are dealing with a controversial issue, they would first want someone in power to give them cover by coming out in favor of the proposal.

BASS TRUMBO

Fayetteville